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How to Write a Business Blog Post (When You’re Not a Writer)

A blog (or any collection of articles) on your business website will raise your credibility with clients and boost your visibility to Google and other search engines, pushing your site’s ranking up.

All good, but what if you can’t craft a well-turned phrase, let alone an effervescent paragraph (or use words like “effervescent”) and you don’t have the budget to hire a writer?

Well, if the knowledge is in your head, you can make it come out your fingers and on to a page. It’s all in the format you choose for your blog post.

So meet the five styles of blog posts that any non-writer can write:

1. The Frequently Asked Questions Post

You know the questions, the ones that every customer eventually asks, the ones you could probably answer in your sleep, about how things work or why one service is more expensive than another. The format for this type of post is a simple line-up of questions and answers on a page. Or you can handle a single question and answer on a single page if the answer is a more complicated one. One caveat: Keep the questions very specific; no “What are your services?”

2. The Step by Step or Before and After, Image-Heavy Post

In this format, you walk the reader through a process, showing how a task or a project gets done. Shoot some pictures for each step and your written description fills out what may not be evident from the photos.

3. The Key Terms Post

Every business speaks its own language, and this post just lists word/definition pairs, covering terms that give customers a behind the scenes look at your work or explain terms that might come up in an invoice or describe features of a product or service.

4. The Tips/DIY Post

Now, a service business doesn’t want to encourage too much do-it-yourself-ing but there is always some level of troubleshooting a client might do before calling in a professional—or maintenance steps to take at home between appointments or service calls. Brief, how-to descriptions work here.

5. The Interview Post

Know a respected or experienced person in your company or your industry—who’s also talkative? Turn on the recorder, ask some questions about how things have changed over the years or the toughest job they’ve seen or pose your Frequently Asked Questions. Then let them talk. Play it back and write it down in a simple question and answer format.

Here’s the key thing about all these blog post types: Don’t be a writer. Be a listener. Pay attention to the answers you give every day at work and get that down on the page. The rest is just typing.

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